Davos steal points in OT against Flyers

Before the start of the game, Victor Stancescu, the retired Captain was given a farewell ceremony by the Kloten Flyers. All players wore different kind of jerseys with their own number but Stancescu's name.

Davos started tonight's game with 8 absentees who were either injured or had played at the U20 World Championships. Kloten on the other hand had one of their most important defenders missing. Patrick von Gunten will miss up to 6 weeks due to a fracture.

Davos had a slightly better start but that was partly due to Kloten's inability to clear the puck in front of their own net. A minor penalty for holding for Enzo Corvi gave the home team a first power play opportunity in the 8th minute. Just a minute later Schneeberger joined him as he played the puck over the glass but the Flyers had problems creating chances with the advantage. But in the 13th minute Martin Gerber was beaten a first time when Samuel Guerra, coming from the right wing, saw his colleague Du Bois in the left face-off circle who then scored the first goal of the game with a one-timer. Marc Wieser had a chance on a break-away in the last minute but Gerber anticipated the moves early and prevented a second goal before the break.

The second period saw a home team that tried to create chances, tried to bring the puck in to the offensive zone but didn't get lucky on front of goalie Genoni. Just as the halftime of the period was over Captain Denis Hollenstein who returned after missing several games due to a concussion had settled behind the goal of Davos and passed the puck to Vincent Praplan who beat the Davos goalie backhand and put Kloten on the scoreboard for the first time. Dick Axelsson was benched shortly after for hooking, the powerplay worked a lot better during this phase but Genoni proved why he's one of the top goalies in Switzerland. But the Flyers kept the pressure on, Robin Leone stood right as the puck deflected of his stick in the 37th minute and gave the Flyers their first lead of the game. One problem Kloten had during the whole season was to maintain the lead after a goal and in this case, the lead held on for less than 2 minutes as Marc Aeschlimann hammered the puck into the net, not giving Gerber the slightest chance. Samuel Guerra was benched for holding in the following minute and Vincent Praplan scored his second goal of the game to regain the lead. The fans were already cheering and making their way to the concession stands but on the ice, the action continued and the nervous Flyers had to accept the equalizer by Marc Schneeberger just 5 seconds before the end of the period.

Why isn't this Flyers team capable of holding on to a lead, where does this nervousness come from? The home team reacted like a disoriented swarm of bees, not knowing where their place was and allowing the opponent to create chances and in these circumstances, score goals. It almost seems as if the team is afraid of holding on to a lead although they have the experience and skills to win games.

5 minutes were played when Patrick Obrist had to take a break for boarding in the 3rd period. But Davos had trouble even getting into the attacking zone and set-up their power play. The rest of the period was a back and forth on both sides but neither team was able to score the game winning goal. With 2 minutes left, Collenberg for Kloten and Walser for Davos were benched for roughing. The regulation ended with a draw and so the 5 minute overtime started with 4 players each. 3 minutes into the OT Devon Setoguchi scored the game winning goal with a beatifull wrist-shot.

With this one point the Flyers remain on the 10th and outside of a play off spot. Davos on the other hand has cemented their 2nd place and will play the Langnau Tigers tomorrow who lost 0-7 to the ZSC Lions tonight.

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